RSL look to avenge home loss to LAFC

Having lost two consecutive league matches and experienced U.S. Open Cup heartbreak during one of their busiest stretches, Los Angeles Football Club move on Wednesday night to host a Real Salt Lake side that could have payback on the brain.

LAFC (10-7-6, 36 points) were dumped out of the Open Cup in last Wednesday's semifinals on penalties by the Houston Dynamo after playing to a dramatic 3-3 draw on the road. Los Angeles scored twice in the final 15 minutes of regulation, including Diego Rossi's equalizer in the fifth minute of second-half stoppage time, to send the game to overtime.

The Dynamo emerged with a 7-6 victory in the shootout.

Following that disappointment, coach Bob Bradley's men succumbed 2-0 to Sporting Kansas City on Saturday night, the club's first competitive loss at Banc of California Stadium in Los Angeles.

"We had a lot to play for, and at the end, we don't come out with anything, so that part we've got to deal with and move on from," Bradley said.

LAFC sits fifth in the Western Conference, one point behind both the LA Galaxy, who tied the Colorado Rapids 2-2 on Tuesday, and the Portland Timbers.

Real Salt Lake (10-9-5, 35 points) is in sixth after missing a chance to go above both Los Angeles teams in their 1-1 home draw against Montreal on Saturday.

The Wednesday contest is another chance for either team to move up the standings. For RSL, that could be extra sweet after they absorbed a 5-1 home defeat at the hands of LAFC on just the second weekend of the season in March. That is the lone home loss of the year for Real Salt Lake, who are 9-1-3 at Rio Tinto Stadium.

"I think we'd like to show better," RSL midfielder Kyle Beckerman said. "Nobody thought that was going to happen, and it was kind of a wakeup call for us. We want to get some respect back, but for the most part, it's just a Western Conference game with a team that's above us."

A win or draw also would extend RSL's season-best unbeaten run to five matches, though the Claret and Cobalt are only 1-0-3 in their past four.

While LAFC had been undefeated at home until last week, RSL is just 1-8-2 on the road, the worst record of any team currently above the Western Conference playoff line.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)